Application of Waste Plastics for Efficient Flood Protection Systems

There are about twenty different types of plastic resins that are commonly used in packaging applications, whereby five of them are large-volume polymers, i.e. polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC), polystyrene (PS) and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET). Together, these polymers account for around 75% of all plastics demand in Europe and is the largest group of waste deposited on Municipal Solid Waste Landfills (MSW). However, waste storage may cause environmental pollution, and the integration of MSW incinerators with materials recovery is one of the most controversial aspects of waste management. In this article a new idea of plastics waste management, based on the production of composite materials with improved properties for flood protection systems, has been presented.